NSF gives $2.8 million to new, innovative doctoral training
program

April 10, 2000

KALAMAZOO -- The National Science Foundation has awarded close
to $2.8 million to an innovative new doctoral research and training
program being offered through Western Michigan University and
11 other participating institutions.

The Biosphere Atmosphere Research and Training program, dubbed
BART by organizers, will take a multi-disciplinary approach to
study how changes in atmospheric conditions can profoundly affect
living organisms and how those altered organisms can, in turn,
affect the atmosphere.

The novel, residential program will train students to address
a range of key questions about how the biosphere and atmosphere
interact. But students will have to look outside their own disciplines
into other fields to search for answers.

"The National Science Foundation is trying to advance
science and create a research field that doesn't exist by combining
disciplines that already do exist," says Dr. Steven Bertman,
a WMU associate professor of chemistry who helped design the model
program. "They want to build bridges between disciplines."

The program is being billed as a "total immersion experience"
in which students spend two summers at the University of Michigan
Biological Station in Pellston. There they will take part in a
series of education activities involving ongoing research programs
that will prepare them to conduct their own pioneering research.
Students will continue their training at their home institutions
during the academic year.

The proposal has been in the works for more than two years.
The $2.8 million grant is actually awarded to the U-M Biological
Station. WMU will receive about $2.5 million of that amount to
coordinate the project.

In addition to using the station's advanced facilities, students
will work with faculty mentors, who will guide them in forming
a new cadre of scientists prepared to address complex issues in
the 21st century.

The grant is through the NSF's Integrative Graduate Education
and Research Training program. Each BART student receives a $15,000
yearly stipend, funding for tuition and fees, travel support,
and support for equipment and supplies. In addition to 10 intensive
weeks at the biological station and conducting research, students
will take part in group Internet discussion and data analysis
and attend two BART conferences and two national conferences.

Other participating institutions include Bowling Green State
University, Indiana University, Michigan Technological University,
Ohio University, Ohio State University, Pennsylvania State University,
Purdue University, the University of Miami, the University of
Michigan, the University of Virginia and Washington State University.

The wide range of topics students could study include the effects
of mercury deposition in the Great Lakes, elevated carbon dioxide
levels or high concentrations of ground level ozone.

"One of the fastest ways to advance science in this country
is to identify fruitful mergers of existing disciplines ­
to spot interdisciplinary areas ­ that would generate terrific
synergisms between what we recognize as existing, separate disciplines,"
says Dr. David Karowe, a WMU associate professor of biological
sciences. He also helped design the program and has studied the
effects of elevated carbon dioxide levels on plants and animals.

Karowe and Bertman say that the BART program was fortunate
to receive NSF funding. Between 500 and 600 proposals were submitted
to the agency, of which 21 were selected. Of those 21, all except
the BART program involve just one or, in a few cases, two institutions.

"It's a very complicated program," Bertman says of
BART. "It involves 12 institutions and at least 25 different
faculty members from those 12 institutions. I believe it's considered
an experiment on NSF's part -- 'Let's see if they can do it.'
­ because it's very different from all of the other grants
they have awarded. It's a major challenge."

The first class begins this summer. In all, 38 students will
take part in the program over the next five years. All will do
two-year fellowships except one student, who will receive one
year of training.

How many students will come from each participating university
is unknown. Those who come up with the best proposals will be
chosen.

Bertman and Karowe are hoping the program will act as a recruiting
tool for graduate students. There are signs that this may already
be paying off.

"We've already had some inquiries from students as far
away as Florida, saying that they were interested in coming to
Western to work on this program," Bertman says. "If
I was a graduate student, I'd be tickled about this. I'd be very
excited."

Students won't be the only ones who benefit. Faculty from all
12 universities can become involved along with their graduate
students.

"When we sat down and conceived this, we wanted to study
these multi-disciplinary interactions, but we don't have a clue
how to do it because each of us is trained as a disciplinary scientist,"
Bertman says. "What we're hoping is that, by the very virtue
of the different culture in which they will be trained as professional
scientists, they will in fact be teaching us."